The Finnish flag with "the blue of Finnish lakes and the white snow of Finnish winters", as a poet described these symbolic colours in 1870, was made official in a law enacted on May 29, 1918, less than six months after Finland had achieved independence.

The national coat of arms displays a crowned lion standing on a red field. The lion holds a raised sword in its right gauntleted fore leg and is trampling a curved sabre. The lion, the crown and the sword and sabre handles are gold, as are the gauntlet joints. The blades and the gauntlet are silver. The field is adorned by nine silver roses.